Introducing Open Source for America
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The newly launched organization Open Source For America consists of over 70 companies and groups working together to push the U.S. government to take a closer look at open source solutions.
"Members of the Open Source For America coalition, which launched Wednesday, include Google, The Linux Foundation, the Mozilla and Debian projects, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)," writes Computerworld's Grant Gross. "The coalition's goal is not to convince the U.S. government to favor open-source software over proprietary code, but to give open source an equal chance to win government contracts."
"In the past, government officials have expressed security concerns with open source code," notes ReadWriteWeb's Dana Oshiro. "Critics argue that exposed source code can be examined by attackers and therefore poses a risk. Nevertheless, another argument for exposed code can be made in ensuring security. By moving away from proprietary software models and giving free access to a system's source code, governments are no longer dependent on a select few contractors for their defense. Instead, an entire programming community can be deployed to defend against attacks."
More here from InformationWeek … more here from The Register … more here from InfoWorld … and the press release is here.